Design, Architecture, Gardens, Southern California Living

Datebook: Events, exhibits, classes for the week ahead

May 9, 2011 | 6:00
am

We've listed select home and garden events below. Suggest your own via reader comments. Submissions must be fewer than 75 words and must be for one-time events with legitimate value to other readers. No store promotions and no frivolous links, please. L.A. at Home staff will determine which submissions will be made public.

May 10: Hui-shu Lee, professor of art history at UCLA, discusses the development of Chinese garden culture during the Song Dynasty. 7:30 p.m. Free. Friends’ Hall, Huntington Library, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino. (626) 405-2100.

May 12: Andrea Wulf, author of “Founding Gardeners: The Revolutionary Generation, Nature, and the Shaping of the American Nation,” gives an illustrated talk about the lives of George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. 2:30 p.m. Free. Friends’ Hall, Huntington Library, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino. (626) 405-2100.

May 12: National Public Radio correspondent Joe Palca, who spent one summer as science writer in residence at the Huntington Library, will discuss his new book, “Annoying: The Science of What Bugs Us,” with co-author Flora Lichtman. Free. Friends’ Hall, Huntington Library, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino. (626) 405-2100.

May 13-14: David Weinstein discusses how developer Joseph Eichler created quintessential 1950s subdivisions as part of the Gamble House lecture series. 7 p.m. $12. Art Center College of Design, 1700 Lida St., Pasadena. A complementary tour of six Eichler homes in the Balboa Highlands community of Granada Hills is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 14. $35. (626) 793-3334, Ext. 52.

May 14-15: The South Pasadena Preservation Foundation’s spring home tour May 14-15 will include “Rose Hedge” (1903), the Raab Family Homestead (1875) and the Greene & Greene Craftsman house (1904) shown above, designed for President James Garfield’s widow. A “progressive dinner” tour of these homes is on the evening of May 14; $95. A Sunday tour runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and is $15. Reservations: www.sppreservation.org.

May 15: The Gamble House, Heritage Square Museum, Los Angeles Police Historical Museum, Lummis Home and the Pasadena Museum of History open for a free day of music, storytelling, art, crafts and entertainment. Exhibits cover history of women's hats, Boyle Heights, the Symbionese Liberation Army and more. Noon to 5 p.m. with last entry at 4 p.m. (213) 740-8687.

Pasadena Showcase: More than 20 designers transform a 1927 Paul Williams-designed English Revival estate in La Cañada Flintridge. 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturdays, Sundays and Tuesdays. 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Ends May 15. Parking at the Rose Bowl. House is not accessible to the disabled, and no children under 12 are permitted. $30 to $40. (714) 442-3872.

Wexler show: “Steel and Shade: The Architecture of Donald Wexler” is a survey of drawings, photographs and models by the noted architect. They are augmented by professional photographs and new models fabricated by Cal Poly students, including a full-scale sectional steel model illustrating the prefabrication system that Wexler used in his steel houses. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, noon to 8 p.m. Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays through Sundays. Ends May 29. $5 to $12.50. Palm Springs Art Museum, 101 Museum Drive, Palm Springs. (760) 322-4800.